Welcome to this Lesson six in the series about Larry Coryell’s approach to Jazz Guitar. The musical examples we are using come from his book called Jazz Guitar in which he kindly outlines his understanding of the blues and jazz style customised to the guitar.

Vocabulary in Jazz/Blues:
You remember in lesson five that we looked at Coryell’s harmonised melodies or chord-melodies in which he showed that, for him, the blues pattern consists of four or five structural chords, C7, F7, G7, plus Dm7. When harmonising melodies he stays close to the underlying chord with occasional ventures into diminished chords and chord substitutions. In fact, he showed us a kind of vocabulary of substitutions in that context: For C7 he would use Bbma7, and Em7b5, for F7, F7sus4#3, F#13, F#b13, for connecting passages diminished 7ths and the Gb/G diminished chord.

Vocabulary of Substitutions:
In lesson six we look at how Coryell expands his vocabulary of substitutions and shows us how he develops these ideas. Let us look at the opening phrase:

Figure 1 Bars 1-3

The first chord, the tonic chord is a chord built on fourths F,Bb,Eb,A. [I call this chord F74, sometimes referred to as F7sus4] That is chord one in his expanded tonal vocabulary. Next Ebma7 although he called it Bbma7, then F9/A, and Cmma7, a slightly more active version of Cmi7 with that B natural, down to Ebma7, his favoured substitution and resolving to B7#5/A. Why B7#5/A? Well firstly, this chord could also be called F7#5/A another variant of F. That means his phrase does not exactly rest here. He has built up a level of Harmonic ‘richness’ some would say instability that is maintained here even at cadence points.

The following phrase (Figure 1, Bar 2), starts with a supertonic (G74) to tonic decoration using more chords built on fourths, the G,C,F chord with the melody note Bb. Moving down by semitone to F, Bb, Eb, really Chord One again, Eb, Ab,Db,G a variant of his Ebma7, D,G,C, Bb, with the bass moving by step down to C,F,Bb,Eb and resolving to F in the bass. In one sense this entire phrase has not left Chord One, with each substitution acting as a decoration of the main sonority.

Figure 2

A brief melodic flourish and here we have this extended phrase of parallel diminished seventh chords (Figure 2, bar 4) going through, F#, A, C, then tumbling back down through Eb, C, A and F# to rest briefly before another tumble using these A/Bb type diminished chords moving down in minor thirds to land on B/C, extended and resolving on a stable B power chord. Harmonically speaking the music has taken us on a journey from the Chord of F to its polar opposite B through a so-called unstable but tuneful progression.

Figure 3

Figure 4

At this point the harmony pivots using a Gmaj7 chord to F#m (Figure 3) and resolves down to Chord One again F7sus4, ornamented by its supertonic, and another flight of the bumblebees (Figure 4) with a rapidly rising series of diminished chords through a dissonant and, for me, unplayable G13#11 chord to rest on Bbmaj/C the nearest to an imperfect cadence this music is likely to approach. Through another diminished passage ornamenting chord V, the harmony twists as if it is going to modulate and rest on D minor. An Em7b5 chord, followed by A7#5,#9 sounds like it would be heading to Dm, but Coryell instead rests on Fma7#5. He calls the chord Dm/ma7 but it sounds very much like F major. This deceptive but beautiful cadence is decorated melodically and rests on our unplayable, for me, G13#11 resolving as intended to D. This note D chord is arguably the high point of this brief tone poem. From this moment the music tumbles down to its close.

Figure 5

Though parallel seventh chords, (Figure 5) a chain of suspensions takes us to another brief flight of diminisheds, further falling diatonic sevenths, resting on Gm11, another chord of fourths (Figure 5).

Figure 6

Further melodic decoration, and an improvised cadence. Then F#7#9, pivoting to an altered C7b5 and a harmonically rich but tonally ambiguous fourth chord, A,D,G,B suspended in the upper reach of this tessitura before being anchored by the low F, which brings us back to Chord One not exactly Chord One as we know it Jim but Chord One nevertheless (Figure 6).

Blues Essence?
Coryell said of these two pages of writing that the music has a blues essence. What did he mean by that? Well we can say that there is none of the rhythmic drive, repetitiveness and dark humour of the blues, but there is the concept of harmony based on the 7th chord. Chord One is a seventh chord the music explores through that a sound world of harmonic depth that invites reflection.

In some ways the first eleven bars just lead us via diminished and altered chords to chord V, then resolve on D at bar 14, the music finally falls down though more stable diatonic chords back to Chord One. On the way Coryell turned the guitar inside out and led us on a harmonic and melodic path supported by mostly parallel chords; the bass and melody moving mostly in parallel motion.

The vocabulary of sounds goes beyond a simple blues and has some of the richness of harmony that we would find in the music of for example Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) or the late symphonists. Perhaps it is reading too much into two pages of music but Coryell’s classical European leaning shines through in this music and reminds us of the harmonic excursions of that other brilliant guitarist Joe Pass (1929-1994).

Well there we have it; I hope this look at harmonic extension inspires you to explore this vocabulary in your own playing. As always, play guitar every day, stay in the groove, make music with cool people and there it is.